COMMON TOTANTJS. 
217 
uttering the notes with a peculiar prolonged and 
quivering whistle. The nest is always placed 
a short way from the water, on some dry bank, 
among straggling willows, or in a pasture or 
grass field ; it is made in a hollow with a little 
of the surrounding herbage collected, and is gene- 
rally protected on one side by some slight eleva- 
tion or tuft ; when openly approached, we have 
always seen the female go off her nest as quietly 
as possible, and without any demonstration of 
alarm, sometimes running before rising, as if wish- 
ing to prevent the detection of the spot. When 
with the young, both the birds are clamorous, but 
never to the same extent as those we have been 
describing. When the young are hatched, the 
broods continue together, and may be found in 
these small companies, on the sea shores, after 
they have left their inland breeding quarters. Its 
habits, in England, so far as we know and have, 
seen, are similar, but it seems to prefer a subalpine 
district for its breeding stations, and is perhaps 
more frequent in the lower lying and flatter dis- 
tricts of the south, after its nidification has been 
performed. It is met with in similar stations in 
Ireland in abundance. Although extending to 
the northernmost parts of the mainland of Scot- 
land, it does not appear to visit the islands ; at 
the same time, it is recorded as ranging northward 
to Iceland, Greenland, and the Faroe Islands.* 
Southward, we find it in India, f the East India 
* Yarrell. + Colonel Sykes. 
